Qualcomm overtakes TI in chip sales rankings

PORTLAND, Ore.—Despite the gloomy outlook for semiconductors in 2012, with more than 59 percent of the leading 157 semiconductor suppliers tracked by IHS iSuppli expected to suffer revenue declines, a few bright spots were highlighted by booming mobile device sales.

At the top of that list is Qualcomm Inc. (San Diego), which is expected to edge out Texas Instruments Inc. to take the third rank behind Intel Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., which have remained the top two sellers of chips for years.

Also moving up in rankings in 2012, according to IHS, are Broadcom Corp., Sony Corp., NXP Semiconductors NV, Nvidia Corp. and MediaTek Inc.—all of which are benefiting from strong growth in mobile device sales.

Qualcomm's sales are projected to grow more than 27 percent in 2012—the highest growth rate of any top 20 chip maker—according to preliminary results from IHS iSuppli's Competitive Landscaping Tool. As a result, Qualcomm, for years the world's largest fabless chip maker, has risen from No. 9 overall in chip sales to No. 3 in just two years.

"With its chips at the heart of countless cellphones, including Apple Inc.’s marquee iPhone 5, Qualcomm has discovered an oasis of growth in the desert that is the semiconductor market in 2012," said Dale Ford, senior director at IHS. "This six-rank ascent in two years represents the biggest increase of any major semiconductor supplier in recent history."

Click on rankings table to enlarge.

IHS's chip supplier rankings are largely consistent with those issued by another market research firm, IC Insights Inc. last month. IC Insights rankings showed Qualcomm moving to the No. 4 position, ahead of TI, but behind Intel, Samsung and pure-play foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC). IHS's rankings do not include foundries, which make chips on a contract basis for chip vendors, including Qualcomm.

TI used to be the biggest mobile chip maker, but now Qualcomm is the third largest chip maker [1], and if the PC market keeps decling, and Intel with it, they will be #1, too, at least if Samsung has nothing to say about it.
[1] - http://techdomino.com/qualcomm-3rd-biggest-chip-maker-by-revenue/

TI long time ago have good base-band business and they are leader in DSP market with 65% market share and this was led to TI dominance in wireless telecommunication application. For comparison in back in 2008 TI DSP revenue is about $5B but now its just mere $1.1B and much of application still came from telecommunication solution. Its very hard to think why TI just gave up and kill their good revenue source. Same as the case of Sensata Technologies, I still keep searching why TI spinoff this company because Sensata is one of large MEMS player. Combined revenue of TI and Sensata MEMS revenue is about $1.1B today.

Interesting that guys like like Freescale, TI, ST Micro etc are all stagnating in spite of their "diverse" portfolio, Qualcomm is not dependent on mobile but they are dependent on telecom, internet-of-things and connectivity and their execution and focus is driving the market.

TI can grow in some other areas while Qualcomm is so depending on the mobile market. Of course, mobile is nowadays the red hot pie but who knows what will be the next revolutionary market that Qualcomm may not be able to turn around. TI on the other hands has too many different sections and their broad range of products will gain momentum when the economy rally back. Of course, this all depends very much on how good the management is performing!

I think TI will stable its business in the year of 2013 and start to grow again in the year of 2014 and in upcoming years. TI have wide range of products it can offer, and they keep churning on new and innovative products and solutions. Also they have customers base of more than 100,000. TI is surely have a great tools to grow again.

I think TI will stable its business in year of 2013 and growing back in the year of 2014 and in upcoming years. TI have wide kind of products its offer and they still keep churning new and innovative products and solution. Also with broad customers base of more than 100,000 in numbers TI surely has a tool to grow again.